


Breathe Words Into My Lungs

by carpfish



Category: Kuroko no Basuke, 刀剣乱舞 | Touken Ranbu
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV First Person, Street Racing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carpfish/pseuds/carpfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First-person drabbles for the "things you/I said" request meme. Multi-fandom, sorted by chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fandom: Touken Ranbu

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tiffu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiffu/gifts), [fleetingblossom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleetingblossom/gifts), [tokkiui](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokkiui/gifts).



> Still taking requests! See list [here](http://hanamiyass.tumblr.com/post/112737081252/send-me-a-ship-and-one-of-these-and-ill-write-a).
> 
> For this first batch, I was reading a lot of love poetry, so please don't expect these to be coherent laughs

 

> **okitagumi with 18. things you said when you were scared and 14. things you said after you kissed me**
> 
> for fleetingblossom and tokkiui, inspired by [this](http://adeliea.tumblr.com/post/112601354949/red) okitagumi comic by [adeliea](http://tmblr.co/mcBac0bdmbIoLhJ-rCTy4ww)

Your fingers ran through my hair and the tips of them were red. Red over the span of my cheek the pales of my lips down my neck and even lower to the very pit of me. And you kissed me, you kissed my eyelids shut, kissed the words out of my mouth like they were honey and you were starving.  

You wouldn’t let me see your grit and pain, buried me deep into the shell of you, and the way your bones dug into mine, they creaked with every breath.

"You’ll be okay," you said to me. "I will fix you, you will be okay." You ran the red of your nails over my mouth to stifle my sobs, and I tasted iron on your claws. 

* * *

 

> **3\. things you said too quietly, mitsutada and hasebe**
> 
> for [invisibear](http://tmblr.co/mmqFZulnVufTZvc8BtYRv3A), slight gore warning

Is it bad that i know the feeling of your shoulderblades probably better than anyone else on this earth? I’ve felt their ridge every time we press back to back, convinced of our mortality but not ready to die. The times I smelt the sweat and sulfur and the grit blood that sticks to your skin so hot and rough that it feels like sandpaper sharkskin ready to cut a man open if they so much as touched you. 

And I know that bony cliff of your shoulder when blinded by heathaze and too hurt to walk, and you’ve carried me back from the edge so many times, just as I’ve dragged you by the hair. I’ve seen the insides of you more times than any lover, sewed them up more times too. 

But there’s also the curve of your arm, the way it hooks into mine, and our fists hit against one another. Brick and steel. Unmovable. Unbreakable. 

"Watch my back," you say, striding onto the frontlines, and with the angle of the sun, you’re almost blinding.

"Stop being so damn cool," I say, and you’re not supposed to hear, but you do.

 

* * *

 

> **19, iwatooshi and (tall?) imanotsurugi, things you said when we were the happiest we ever were**
> 
> for polyphenols. I love the Benkei Yoshitsune story.

When you came to me, I was wild. Teeth gnashing, claws sharp, hair like a beast. A demon, they called me, just like my master. A demon who had tasted the steel of nearly a thousand blades. Who had crushed them as easily as one would kill a fly. 

You were taller back then, you know. (Don’t protest, you’re a tiny little fry now. We all know it.) You were sky and summit forged in copper and iron, given shape by the Gods themselves. I had seen nine hundred swords, I had sank my fangs into them and ripped them apart. But when we clashed, you were strength without malice. You were the sting of cold air after the first snow. 

(No, not literally of course. It’s a metaphor, kid.  _Me-ta-phor._  Geez.)

We fought. With our masters at our sides, we fought, and we didn’t care if the wind howled, the bridge creaked, if the land crumbled around us or the rivers rose up to swallow us whole. You flew like a bird and I was strong as a mountain. I could have fought you till the end of the world. Hell, it felt like the end of the world. Existence, history, time, all of it had reached its highest point right here on Goyo Bridge. 

(Yeah, don’t even think about it. If we tried it right now I’d just kick your ass. Sit back down, kid.)

But you know what? I lost. My master and I lost, and as we knelt before you in defeat, the burn of shame felt no more painful than the sting of strong drink as it goes down the throat. I’d still lose to you afterwards, many times. In the fight, and in other ways as well. (Don’t ask what ways, it’s not my fault you don’t remember.) It was never open surrender, but you always have had a knack of getting your way. 

And as we stared each other down on that bridge that no longer exists, in this moment that happened so long ago, you did not reach your hand out to me because you knew I didn’t need it.With eyes like rising suns, you smiled and spoke to me.

(You’ve fallen asleep already, so you’ll never hear the end of this story. But I’ll keep telling it anyways.)

"Stand by me, Iwatooshi." You said.

And damn well I did. 

 

* * *

 

> **12\. things you said when you thought i was asleep and 20. things you said that I wasn't meant to hear, okitagumi**

> for fleetingblossom and anonymous

Here are two truths and a lie.

Firstly, I knew that you weren’t asleep, not really. Swords don’t actually sleep; steel does not dull for lack of rest. 

Secondly, the moonlight shone on your face through the crack of the door, and it made your skin even whiter. Your lips were red like you’d been coughing blood, and it made my throat tight, as if I were drowning. Your head was in my lap and I combed my fingers through your hair. I wanted to pull harder, so that it’d hurt you. I wanted to put my hands on your neck and kiss the air out of your lungs. 

Instead, I bent down close and whispered into your ear, and I said, “You did not have to see him at his worst. You could rest with a beautiful memory of him. The swordsman, the fighter. You did not have to see him shrivel and waste away on a bedroll. So it’s only fair that you were not with him until the end. I was his only companion.”

You continued to sleep, chest rising and falling as if all the world were still at peace. Nothing could have woken you.

Thirdly, I envy you. I truly do. Because he loved you best.

Here are two truths and a lie, Kashuu Kiyomitsu. 


	2. Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haven't written Imahana and Kiridai in ages. Feels good, man.

> **16\. things you said with no space between us, imahana**
> 
> for chanceoftsunderestorms

And there we lay, post-bellum. Broken bone against broken bone, raw wound against raw wound, exhausted with the effort of tearing one another apart. The open cavity of your ribs interlocked with the notches of my spine, and the sky hung high above our heads like god’s grand guillotine.   
  
And when I told you I was tired you said you were tired too, and that my hair was soft like flowers, and that the years had drained like the slow soak of spilled wine down a metal kitchen sink.   
  
I told you I was done and you said, “I’ve known you for too long to believe that for even a second.” And we lay there until our skeletons bleached and our skin withered like the dried petals of that one bouquet you’d bought me, so many years ago. 

* * *

 

> **23\. things you said "before we kicked our opponents' asses in street racing", setohana**
> 
> for tiffu

The exhaust fumes from that last sprint swirl about you like a desert storm, and when I breathe in, I can feel my lungs burning from it, more dust and ash than any drag. You’re an angel babe, or at least a vision of it, leaning against that white McLaren Spider: white suit, white tie, spine loose and jaw tense. You let your hair fall over your eyes as you lick your teeth, and when you come over, you don’t walk, you amble, shoulderblades shifting like tectonic plates. You are what people think of when they say beautiful disaster, helicopters buzzing vulture-like over the wreckage you leave behind. Nicotine’s got nothing on you.

The way you bite the cigarette between your teeth is like sex, and you tilt your head close to mine. “Light me,” you say between a valley of slender fingers. The smoldering tip of my cig reaches out to burn yours, and you pull away, your smile crow black, your eyes a wildfire. It’s as close to a kiss as the “ki” in “kill”. 

I smell leather as you get into your car, all sounds drowning into the background save for the roar of your ignition. I modded it for you myself, that deep growl that crawls under my skin. “What’re you staring at?” You sneer, rolling up your windows until all thats left is the slit of your eyes above a bulletproof glass. “Let’s drive.”

I take one last drag and toss my cig to the ground. Behind the wheel, we are what tornadoes dream of becoming. 

 


End file.
